Friday, October 15, 2004

Republic 327c7-9

"Well, do you see how many of us there are?" he said.
"How could I not?"
"Then you two must either turn out to be stronger than these men, or stay here."


[Most translators (Grube, Shorey, Cornford, Bloom) translate 327c8 as a statement. In the Gr., it's a question, but since the aforementioned translate it as an indicative statement, I'm probably being naive in translating it as a question in Eng. Also, the note in Smyth on the construction used in 327c8 (pos gar) is interesting given the context here: "imply that something is impossible (often of surprise)" (see Smyth, 2805). It is indeed a strange question Polemarchus asks.]

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